Suburban Houston Law Firm Plans $14M Headquarters

A fast-growing suburban Houston personal injury firm is putting down a pricey marker in Pearland, planning a $14 million headquarters along one of the region’s fast-growing suburban corridors.

J.D. Silva & Associates is aiming to break ground this summer on a three-story, 42,400-square-foot office building at the intersection of Beltway 8 and U.S. Highway 288, pending city permits, according to the Houston Business Journal. The building, dubbed “Lawplex,” would rise on a 1.9-acre parcel the firm bought in February 2024 between a Holiday Inn Express & Suites and Bombshells Restaurant & Bar.

J.D. Silva launched just five years ago with two lawyers and two other employees. Today, it employs about 60 people, including 11 attorneys, said Ernest Rojas, the firm’s director of corporate services.

The law firm initially planned to develop the building with Houston-based Z-Co, but that partnership fell apart. J.D. Silva is now working with Powers Brown Architecture, another Houston firm, and is currently soliciting bids for a general contractor, the outlet reported.

Design-wise, Lawplex is meant to stand out in Pearland. Plans call for glass walls, staggered floor plates with the largest floor on top, a rooftop patio and a centrally located staircase that lights up at night. That modern look required some back-and-forth with city officials, Rojas told the publication, because it departs sharply from the area’s more conventional suburban architecture.

Construction is expected to take 12 to 14 months. Once complete, J.D. Silva plans to occupy roughly 30,000 square feet of the building, leasing out the first floor to office or retail tenants.

The firm currently leases about 10,000 square feet in a building at 9307 Broadway Street that already bears its name, and has added smaller outposts in Angleton in Brazoria County and McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley as its caseload has expanded, according to the publication.

The future site puts the firm directly across Highway 288 from a nearly 100-acre tract that has repeatedly teased a massive mixed-use future. Houston-based NewQuest abandoned a $350 million development planned there in 2023, the second time a developer has walked away from the property.

“The 288 corridor is getting denser, better demographics and more rooftops,” Pearland Economic Development Corporation President Matt Buchanan told the Business Journal last year.

— Eric Weilbacher